Plane carrying 105 passengers crashes in Cuba

Emergency personnel work at the site of the accident after a Cubana de Aviacion aircraft crashed after taking off from Havana's Jose Marti airport on May 18, 2018.
A Cuban state airways passenger plane with 113 people on board crashed on shortly after taking off from Havana's airport, state media reported. The Boeing 737 operated by Cubana de Aviacion crashed "near the international airport," state agency Prensa Latina reported. Airport sources said the jetliner was heading from the capital to the eastern city of Holguin.
/ AFP PHOTO / Yamil LAGE

No fewer than 102 persons lost their lives on Friday after a Boeing 737 plane crashed shortly after taking off from Havana’s main airport in Cuba.

There were at least three possible survivors among the 105 passengers as well as nine crew, Cuban state-run media reported, adding that there were five children on board.

According to Reuters, earlier reports on state media said there were 104 passengers.

The number of casualties was not immediately known, but Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, visiting the site of the crash, told Agence France Presse, “it appears there is a high number of victims.”

Wreckage was strewn over the area and ambulances and firefighters were at the scene, a Reuters witness said. The fire had been put out, and blackened parts of the fuselage could be seen.

“We heard an explosion and then saw a big cloud of smoke go up,” said Gilberto Menendez, who runs a restaurant near the crash site in the agricultural area of Boyeros, 20km (12 miles) south of Havana.